Zilliqa Urges Exchanges to Pause ZIL Transfers

Zilliqa posted on X that it asked exchanges to temporarily stop ZIL deposits and withdrawals after an exchange partner’s cold wallet was reportedly compromised and ZIL was taken. The network said it is investigating the incident but did not name the partner or disclose the amount taken.

The project did not specify whether the compromise involved stolen private keys, a software vulnerability, human error or another cause. No timetable was provided for when normal deposit and withdrawal services might resume.

ZIL traded near $0.0025 and fell about 7.1% over the 24 hours after the announcement. Several exchanges handling ZIL activity paused transactions while the network and its partner(s) review the incident.

Addressing the community, Zilliqa wrote: “We understand the community will have questions. We will share further updates as soon as we have verified information.” The team said it will provide more details once findings are confirmed.

A cold wallet stores cryptocurrency offline; a compromise generally means private keys or access controls were exposed, allowing funds to be moved without network authorization. Zilliqa did not provide technical details of the loss or whether stolen keys were involved.

Zilliqa launched in 2017 as a layer-1 blockchain built around sharding to increase transaction processing capacity. The mainnet went live in January 2019. ZIL, the network’s native token, is used to pay transaction fees and to run smart contracts.

Investigations are ongoing. Exchanges and users holding ZIL have been advised to wait for official updates before initiating transfers.